By Pedro Gellert
View of Ho Chi Minh City, 2025
The visit of Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to Brazil to attend the BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro from July 6 to 7, in which Vietnam is an associate member of that international organization, is a testament to the progress that this Southeast Asian nation has achieved and the recognition it has gained on a global scale.
Although in the popular imagination of millions of people worldwide, Vietnam is known, and is even seen as a symbol due to its successful national liberation struggle against the most powerful country on the planet in the 1960s and 70s, today, on the 50th anniversary of the 1975 victory, it is increasingly recognized for the impressive social achievements it has achieved since the Doi Moi renewal policy was launched in 1986. These economic reforms aimed to modernize a country still devastated by the decades-long war.
In 2024, annual GDP growth reached 7.09%, one of the highest rates worldwide. Macroeconomic stability continues, inflation is controlled and clocks in below 4%, the main balances are guaranteed, and there are surpluses. By 2029, Vietnam will officially be among the 20 largest economies worldwide.
But macroeconomic figures mean little if they do not translate into improvements in the well-being of the population, in building a more equitable and prosperous society. There are many countries in the world where a small minority controls the wealth and the overwhelming majority of workers and peasants live in misery. Fortunately, this is not at all the case of Vietnam.
In Vietnam, thanks to its socialist project and economic achievements, the quality of life for the country’s population has massively improved in recent years. Per capita income is US$4,711, and the poverty rate has drastically decreased to just 1.93% (according to multidimensional standards), down from 60% in 1986. According to the United Nations ranking, Vietnam’s happiness index in 2024 rose 11 places, ranking 54th out of 143 countries.
Today, almost 99% of Vietnamese adults are literate, the number of university and higher education students has increased nearly 20 fold, and secondary education has been universalized since 2014.
Health insurance coverage increased from 90.2% of the population in 2020 to 94.1% in 2024. The quality of education at all levels and the application of science and technology is on the rise. An ecosystem of startups and innovation is being formed and developed. The quality of human resources is improving and the employment rate is increasing. Ethnic, religious, and belief-based policies are prioritized and attention is focused on their implementation. Child care and protection, youth education, the promotion of the role of the elderly, gender equality, the advancement of women, and information and communication are all being strengthened.
Vietnam is home to 53 national minorities. Developing and improving the lives of these ethnic minorities has always been one of the State’s important objectives, reflected through many policies. These include supporting cultural development, organizing cultural festivals and traditional events, promoting the preservation and development of ethnic minority languages through education and communication (the Voice of Vietnam, the state radio station, currently has a channel that broadcasts in 13 minority languages), investing in infrastructure development, supporting production and improving the lives of remote and vulnerable communes, providing preferential loans to ethnic minorities to develop production and businesses, training professionals, creating jobs, and helping workers increase their income and stabilize their lives, providing free health insurance, waiving tuition for students at all levels, and offering scholarships and grants to students in difficult circumstances.
With all these achievements, Vietnam ranks 54th out of 166 in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) index.
In the context of a deeply polarized and unpredictable global situation, developing countries face new opportunities but also greater challenges. To achieve success in this new era of development, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Tô Lâm, outlined four major pillars in strategic action for national development in the new era. Although each pillar focuses on a key area, they are closely linked, complement each other, and mutually reinforce each other in understanding and implementation.
These pillars are:
1. Advances in science, technology, and innovation to achieve a technological level and innovation capacity in enterprises above the world average, with some scientific and technological fields reaching international levels by 2030. The country’s level and capacity for technology, innovation, and digital transformation will be among the top three in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and among the top five in Asia.
2. Renewal in the formulation and application of laws, completing the institutional system in fundamental areas such as state organization; developing a socialist-oriented market economy, protecting human rights and creating a healthy and competitive investment and business environment; renewing the legislative process with a view toward proactivity and creativity, ensuring coherent, concrete, understandable, and easily enforceable laws and improving the effectiveness of law enforcement, reinforcing discipline and rigor in implementation, linking power with responsibility.
3. The private economy as the main economic engine. In the socialist-oriented market economy, the private sector is the most important motor driving the national economy, the leading force in science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation.
4. International integration in the new global context. International integration is a goal for the entire nation. Unified state management, with the people and private enterprises as the center and as creative protagonists. In the economy, integration will be boosted alongside the construction of an independent, modern economy; the digital, green, and circular economy will be developed; and competitiveness will be improved based on science, technology, and innovation.
Vietnam has consistently applied a comprehensive, free, and open international integration policy of multilateralization and diversification, joining efforts in cooperation and assuming common responsibilities to build a better world of peace, progress, and development.
This new and increasingly important role of Vietnam on the world stage will surely be reaffirmed at the BRICS summit and bilateral meetings to be held in the next few days.